From EuCARD-2 to ARIES TIARA CC Meeting, 18.10.2016 Maurizio Vretenar

Success! Friday 26 August, 13:02: Communication from the European Commission that the ARIES project has been invited to Grant Agreement preparation. The high score of 14.5/15 puts ARIES at number 3 of the 28 projects presented (the first 4 projects are at 14.5, there was no 15 for this call). The EC has found means to increase the budget for this call and approve 21 projects out of 28 (success rate 75%). Many thanks to TIARA for its advice and continuous support on this long adventure, started back in September 2014!

ARIES Evaluation Excellence (5/5): objectives of the proposal clear and very relevant with regard to the work programme as well as to the ESFRI roadmap - several ground-breaking objectives - technologies that could be pushed to higher technology readiness levels - clear integration of universities and industry - very wide transnational access programme - TA boosted by the e-learning course - priority to integrate the south and east parts of Europe. Impact (5/5): fully in line with the impacts targeted by the work programme - development of synergies and complementarities between accelerator facilities in Europe and wider integration of industrial partners - provision of a proof of concept fund - development of compact, low radiation accelerators - solid training element with a strong industry connection. Implementation (4.5/5): well-structured with key players with large expertise taking the lead in each WP - CERN plays a large part in almost all of the WPs while new partners could have been more engaged - management costs reasonable - risk identification mostly adequate however, some risks appear to be trivial and generic while for some high-impact risks the mitigation process is underdeveloped.

ARIES Grant Agreement In H2020 short deadlines for preparation of Grant Agreement: 16.9: Submission of grant data and annexes – done, comments received, 2 weeks from comments to submit final version. We went down from 42 beneficiaries to 41 because we declared a micro-SME as partner organisation receiving funding from CERN (to reduce their administrative burden). 7.10: Signature by all partners of Declaration of Honour – 3 industrial partners missed the deadline (HIT, CNI, BHTS) because waiting for validation from EC needed to appoint a legal signatory (they were late in sending the paper documents, we asked for an extension of deadline – there is some margin – on the basis that industries are new and not used to the H2020 administration). 13.10: Resubmission of grant data. Still many modifications (third parties appearing, modifications to the budget repartition, etc.) and creative solutions required (CNI Foundation). Difficult exercise because in case we do not meet deadlines the EC has the right to reject partners or the full proposal. Goal is to sign the Grant Agreement by end of November.

ARIES Consortium Agreement Consortium Agreement (CA): a potential source of troubles (nightmare in EuCARD2 because of IP protection clauses), we plan to circulate the first draft immediately after the GA signature and have it approved before start of project. In the hope of limiting problems, we have decided to base the ARIES CA on the DESCA model, a template well known and usually accepted by scientific institutions.

ARIES Next Steps New Project Officer (replacing B. Fabianek who left the unit): Patricia Postigo-Mclaughlin. Positive contacts so far. Proposed start of project: May 1st, 2017 (immediately after the end of EuCARD2). For administrative reasons, the EC will probably declare a start on Jan. 1st and a 52 months duration. Kick-off meeting at CERN on May 4-5 (Globe, Council Chamber): presentation of the project, some general talks, meeting of Transnational Access, CERN visit. First Steering Committee Meeting during EuCARD2 meeting in March 2017. Note that the logo here above is only temporary, we have contacted a designer for a new logo and a wider graphical identity (web, slides).

EuCARD-2: 6 months to go (end of project 30 April 2017)

EuCARD-2 Status Periodic Report 2 submitted on June 30th, scientific part accepted by the EC (note: 2 deliverables are delayed for justified reasons). Financial part rejected (25.7) with request for clarifications to the Financial Reports submitted by 4 institutes. Clarifications were collected and sent in September. After approval of the Financial report, the corresponding payment (2.5%) has been received on 14.10 but will not be redistributed (too small amounts). The Governing Board has approved by e-mail in September a budget readjustment of 144 k€ (underspent NA budget to additional activities and internal readjustments). The new Project Officer (#3!) is Mina KOLEVA, an astrophysicist.

Last EC2 Annual Meeting Tuesday 28 March to Thursday 30 March 2017 Technology and Innovation Centre of Strathclyde University, Glasgow, UK 2 days plenary meeting (Tue-Wed) 1 day parallel meetings (Thu): WPs, SC, SC ARIES, SAC) Visit of SCAPA - Scottish Centre for the Application of Plasma-based Accelerators (Wed) Governing Board meeting (Wed) Welcome drink at the Corinthian Club (Tue) Banquet at the City Halls (Wed)

Deliverable progress 2 late deliverables (were due at M36) – delay accepted by B. Fabianek. Will go to M42 and M48. Three deliverables expected at end of October, on track.

Milestone progress Some «relaxation» in the production of Milestones – we are following up

Delays and open issues Deposition test facility at CEA Saclay (C. Antoine): experimental problems (EMC limits B field) and personnel problems (PhD resignation at INP Grenoble) have caused delay in the design of the facility (not yet done) and could hinder D12.10 due at M48 (Cavity deposited and qualified). The DE description offers a chance to stop with the design of the facility, but at least this needs to be done! The NRF cavity for fs stabilisation at FLASH (S. Pfeiffer) comes too late to be installed in FLASH (no shut-down available). Test in FLASH will be replaced by a series of off-line tests that will go into D13.5. This was agreed by B.Fabianek. The Nb3Sn coating achieved on samples at CERN (S. Calatroni) is not good enough for RF measurements. It has been decided to honestly report the procedure and the failure in D12.5, which promised to «qualify» the samples (a negative qualification is still a qualification…). Last deliverable of WP10 (HTS magnet test stand preparation and test) problematic because the person in charge, G. Volpini of INFN, passed away last week after a short illness. The idea is to do the test at CERN with some reduction in reach, still compatible with the description of the deliverable (and shifting the corresponding budget.

Challenges ahead Peak of contractual obligations (20 deliverables, final periodic report) in the first six months of 2017 (in parallel with the start of ARIES). Will be difficult to follow… Our project assistant Julia Double leaves the project office in December (for other important activities and responsibilities) and a replacement is ongoing but not yet defined. Little hope for an overlap, we hope that the new person will come soon in 2017 and be immediately productive (to contribute to point 1 above!). Some support in drafting the reports and in highlighting the impact of EuCARD2 can be provided by Toms Torims from Riga University who helped with the ARIES proposal and will spend 1 year at CERN as Scientific Associate (working on KT-related issues).

Conclusions The success of ARIES is another proof of the vitality and efficiency of our community. The challenge now is to move smoothly from EuCARD-2 to ARIES (and to start preparing the future after ARIES!).